Palm Beach Currumbin 11.11.77 defeated by Labrador 18.6.114
Five games, five wins for the Labrador Tigers, but this one wasn’t as easy as the scoreboard may suggest.
Palm Beach was the better team in the first half, and hung around all day.
But like all good sides do, Labrador found a way to win.
With constant rain, and wind blowing across the ground, conditions were tricky. It wasn’t the prettiest game of football you’ve ever seen.
Bryce Perry-Bolt was the go to man early for the Tigers, kicking three in the first term to see them 13-points up at the first break.
Palm Beach came out with intent in the second. They were on top in the middle, and hit the scoreboard.
A four goal to three second quarter brought the Lions back within seven at the long break.
The Tigers put scoreboard pressure on in the third when the Lions couldn’t.
It was an even quarter through the middle, but the Lions just lacked that little bit of polish to finish their good work.
Palm Beach’s defense was good all afternoon, but when you have as many dangerous forwards as Labrador do, one was always going to get off the chain.
Perry-Bolt chimed in with another two for the quarter, as they skipped away to a 20-point three quarter time lead.
Palm Beach kicked the first of the final quarter, and it was game on.
Enter Ryan Davey.
The Tigers skipper went forward, kicked three, and put the result beyond doubt.
The margin did flatter the Tigers. Palm Beach had two less scoring shots for the day, and took it right up to them.
Winning ugly is a fundamental part of being a good side, and that’s what Labrador did yesterday.
Coach’s thoughts
Chad Owens – Palm Beach
“In the end they had too much polish for us, too many skilful players.
“For 85 per cent of the game we were just as good as them. We had three lapses and in that time they kicked goals.
“We walk away thinking we are not that far away.
“Head to head I think we won the midfield battle. We just couldn’t get enough scoreboard pressure.
“In the last quarter when we are missing shots at goal their captain goes forward and kicks three, that’s just the class we are missing at the moment.
Steve Daniel – Labrador
“We were probably a little bit disappointed with the way we played today. Early on, our individual performances, we had a lot of players that couldn’t get themselves into the game.
“Palm Beach easily played better football in the first half but somehow we still found ourselves in front.
“We were pretty honest with our assessment and probably thought we had about 12 passengers.
“Winning ugly is still winning, and good sides find a way to win when they really need to win.”
Sandgate 11.13.79 defeated UQ 6.9.45
It wasn’t pretty, it wasn’t easy, but Sandgate grinded out a good win against UQ yesterday.
Conditions at Lemke Road were tricky, rain, wind, sun in the eyes, it had it all.
Both teams would have been confident of a strong showing before the bounce, and it certainly showed in the first half.
UQ started the better, kicking with a slight breeze.
They kicked three of the first four, and held an 8-point advantage at the first change.
It was a scrappy game, and the conditions weren’t helping, but boy was it physical.
Aden Rutledge set the tone for Sandgate, he was physical and he put his body on the line.
The Hawks lifted around him.
They booted the first three of the quarter before you could blink to open up a ten point advantage, but to the Red Lions’ credit, they didn’t drop their heads.
Following a couple of late ones to Adkins and Judd, it was all square at half time.
The third quarter was a ferocious contest. Neither team was really able to capitalise on any forward 50 entry early, and with both teams setting up with a loose man behind the ball, 90 per cent of the game was played along the boundary line.
When Liam Rutledge and Haynes both converted late for the Hawks, you felt a real momentum shift in the game.
At three-quarter time, the Hawks were up by 15.
From here it was all Sandgate.
When Beaven snapped one around his body from 40 out early in the last, you knew they were home.
Sandgate ran out 30-point winners, and continue to show they will be tough to beat in 2015.
Coach’s thoughts
Graham Adams – Sandgate
“It wasn’t a pretty game of football but it was physical and tough, there was a lot of hard hits and big tackles, and both sides did that well.
“(Aden Rutledge) set the tone in the second quarter with that bump, that got us going, up until that point we were pretty sluggish and that turned us around.
“I think we had to go wide purely because of the way they were setting up, both sides were playing players behind the footy, so we had to go wide to go forward.
“We are after respect, we have played some damn good footy sides, and I think we are on the right track to get a bit of momentum happening.”
Darren Pfeiffer – UQ
“Pretty disappointing, it was just the same old story again unfortunately. I don’t think we were physical enough and we didn’t stick our tackles. We just let them get too many handballs going.
“We always want to take it through the 45’s when we can, but I thought we didn’t switch enough when we had the opportunity, which is disappointing.
“The fightback was good. We were weary that our second quarters haven’t been good this year, Sandgate were still able to come out and put on a few goals but the response from the boys in the second quarter was better than we have been doing.”
Western Magpies 10.12.72 defeated Surfers Paradise 10.8.68
Despite a slow start, the Western Magpies were able to run over the top of Surfers Paradise yesterday in an absolute nail-biter.
The Demons placed a real focus on rectifying their slow starts this week, and it worked.
They won the inside ball early, which set up a six goal to one first quarter, in which Fraser and Green had two each.
Glenn Humphrey was weary of a lethargic start by the Magpies after the two weeks off, but there was still a long way to go.
Their revival started midway through the second, and it came from Matt Thompson.
He kicked two in quick succession, before Cal Carseldine chipped in with one late in the quarter, to drag the margin back to just eight-points at half time.
When Dickfos kicked the first of the second half, amazingly, it was just a three-point game.
It was Green and Fraser, the two most dangerous forwards on the ground, who steadied the ship for Surfers Paradise, kicking two in two minutes to give the Demons a 17-point advantage at the final change.
It was a dog fight early in the last, with neither team being able to find an avenue to goal in the first ten minutes.
With the clock against them, the Magpies had to make their move and do it quickly.
They flicked the switch, and kicked four on the trot to hit the lead for the first time of the day.
A late goal to Green, his fifth, wasn’t enough for Surfers, as the Magpies clawed their way back from five goals down in the first, to even the ledger in 2015.
Luke Scott was enormous for the Magpies. The space he found across half back, and the way he set up the play by foot was pivotal in the win.
They have some real momentum now and could do some real damage over the next month.
Coach’s thoughts
Glenn Humphrey – Western Magpies
“After a slow start we worked our way into it.
“We worked back into a couple of goals down by half time and then come out and got an early one.
“They were good early, good at the contest and the football, but we were a bit slow and weren’t helping ourselves too much.
“We kicked four goals to one in the second quarter which got the boys up and running and their confidence going.”
Peter Young – Surfers Paradise
“We started well, which we had spoken about, after some poor starts.
“I thought our in close stuff was really good, and that we won that. We knew they would be good in close, but I think we were on top early.
“We didn’t get the win but we are happy with how we are going.”
Wilston Grange 14.13.97 defeated Broadbeach 13.11.89
It might have been a while between drinks, but Wilston Grange blew off the cobwebs to keep their season rolling yesterday. It certainly wasn’t easy though.
Broadbeach were always going to put up a real fight. They went away over the break and tightened up as a group.
The Gorillas’ weathered the storm well.
You couldn’t split these two sides all day, they went goal for goal for the majority.
It was all square at quarter time, and the second quarter wasn’t much different.
The battle between Declan Bevan and Matt Dillon was the one to watch. It may sound strange to say that a forward and his direct opponent both had good days, but that was case.
Bevan kicked two of his four in the second, but it was the Cats who led by two points at the main break.
Broadbeach started to get a run on in the second. They got the ball going out of the middle, had repeated forward 50 entries, but couldn’t hurt the Gorillas where it counted.
They had four missed set shots for the quarter, and kicked another one out on the full.
At three quarter time, there was just one point in it, and anyone’s ball game.
Taylor Haley nearly won it off his own boot for the Cats. He kicked three in the first 20 minutes of the last to put the cats up by two.
Just like they did earlier in the year against Surfers Paradise, Wilston Grange found a way.
They rallied late to boot the last two of the game, and get across the line by eight-points.
A cracking game of football.
Coach’s thoughts
Matt Trewhella – Wilston Grange
“They are a good side; we knew it would be tight going in.
“Everyone was quite lethargic, you just lose so much momentum with the two weeks off, and it was difficult to just get in the game.
“We were quite reactive to them early, and it wasn’t until quite late in the game when we went man on man and stopped a bit of their run that we got on top.
“It was quite even through the middle.
“That’s the second game we have come from behind late to get the win, but the concerning thing was that we let the game get away from us so we still have a lot to work on.
Wayne Petterd – Broadbeach
“I was a lot happier with today than I was in the previous weeks but to not get the four points was a little bit frustrating.
“At least we had a crack today as a group. We played four quarters. It was a pretty even contest all day, we just didn’t help ourselves in the fourth quarter when we missed four set shots and put one out on the full.
“They are a good side and have got some really good players, and it was those guys who got them over the line late in the last quarter. They found another level when it was needed and we spent too many petrol tickets early.”
Morningside 19.13.127 defeated Mt Gravatt 6.6.42
Another day, another dollar.
Morningside banked yet another four-points today, comfortably taking care of Mt Gravatt at home.
The Vultures got numbers back early, limiting the Panthers to just the two goals in the first, but weren’t able to hit the scoreboard themselves.
The second quarter was a different story.
The link up game Morningside pride themselves on came to the fore. They booted nine goals to three for the quarter, with Abey and Hackett contributing with two majors each.
Mt Gravatt lacked a little bit of polish in their disposal, and Morningside made them pay.
The Panthers held a 48-point advantage at the main break.
McNiece opened the scoring in the second half, before James and Estall kicked two in a row for the first time in the game for Mt Gravatt.
It was all one way traffic from there.
Morningside went on to kick the next four of the quarter, to be 68 points up at the final change.
With an eye on next weeks big clash, the cue was put in the rack a bit in the last.
With the sting out of the game, the Panthers kicked four goals to one, to cruise home 85-point winners.
The win today means one thing; two teams, yet to lose, going head to head on a Sunday afternoon.
Roll on round 6.
Coach’s thoughts
David Lake – Morningside
“The last part of our second quarter was very good.
“Considering we had a few unavailabilities it was good to see the next kids come up and play well.
“Most importantly we had a crack, we were durable, and now we can look forward to next week against Labrador when it’s money time.
“We talked about it being a big ten days, and we had to get through today before next week.”
Brad Pollock – Mt Gravatt
“We were just beaten by a better team. The boys had a decent crack which we were pleased with but at the end of the day, we just made too many skill errors. When you turn the ball over Morningside make you pay.
“The group was better; it’s a good basis going forward. At the end of the day we have been comprehensively beaten on the scoreboard but we certainly take a lot out of it.”
By Andrew Wiles – @andrewjwiles
